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For an extended period of time education was mainly formal, that is a system with clear roles, goals and responsibilities. Education resembled an immutable and closed system with few, if any, connections to other parts of society. However, during the last century significant changes occurred in many areas of society, culminating in global reform movements to democratise education and to increase participation by opening up education. A current and prominent example of such a movement is Open Educational Resources (OER), which is a global attempt to facilitate the flow of knowledge, reduce the costs of education, and establish an educational system based on humanistic and moral values (i.e. sharing). Yet, recent developments are progressing at such an accelerated speed that it is hard to predict the ‘real’ value of OERs for educational purposes. Also, within OER little reference has been made to previous forms of Open Education, such as Open Classroom/Open Learning in the 1960s and 1970s or to the even older German progressive education (Reformpädagogik). Current OE forms can be characterised as a mixture of economical (‘education as a commodity’), moral (‘education as a common good’) and social (‘education as a shared enterprise’) claims, each of which contribute to the emergence of Open Education. This introductory chapter attempts to set the stage for a sound engagement with openness in education. It provides a conceptual framework that discusses major developments throughout the history of Open Education from a philosophical standpoint. Special attention will be paid to the concept of Bildung (self-realisation, self-cultivation) as an in-depth theory that can not only inform what happens when learners utilise OER but also allows one to reflect on the impact of OER on society. Selected cases of Open Education will be reviewed and then framed with the theory of Bildung. Eventually, this will lead to a set of lessons learned that are aimed at guiding current debates on Open Education.

Open Courseware, in many ways, was the starting point towards mainstream discussion and adoption of open learning, particularly in higher education. In its first iteration, the concept specifically excluded assessment recognition, and credentialisation, which aims to ‘liberate’ knowledge without shattering the designing, teaching and awarding processes traditional education has relied upon for decades, if not centuries.

The Open University (OU) United Kingdom manages two platforms for hosting Open Educational Resources (OER): OpenLearn, delivering the OU’s OER, reaching over10 million learners a year, attracting a mostly UK audience, and OpenLearn Create, reaching 3 million learners a year, where anyone can create and share OER, attracting a mostly international – non-UK – audience. Both platforms release OER using a Creative Commons license and afford accessibility to learning materials specifically catering to the needs of underserved groups, in other words, individuals or groups who may have limited access to education or continuing professional development (CPD) either as recipient or as educator. Using case studies, research data analytics and survey data, this chapter reveals how the approach to delivering OER on OpenLearn Create fosters community engagement and outreach across a broad spectrum of projects in a range of languages and format often to those with restricted access to professional development within organizations. The chapter discusses weaknesses in the platform’s usability for delivering online courses, but strengths and recommendations for its use as an adaptable project-based tool. Research data also reveal that where an institution is prepared to minimally support the provision of such a platform, the contribution to humanizing education for OER projects globally is great.

This chapter makes the case that school-related material and informally used content need to be considered equally important as complete, higher education (HE)-level courses when exploring how open education (OE) is used in practice. It provides a brief overview of several key HE and school-related OE projects, what they offer, their approximate reach and the significance of established brands, with short case studies of TES Connect, Khan Academy and TESSA. It also examines the evidence of impact on students, and how some of the projects counter criticism that they promote ‘closed’ forms of traditional, instructor-led education through blended and flipped teaching approaches or peer-led learning.

The purpose of the chapter is to explore how OE sites are used in practice by examining some of the key projects that provide free materials to students and teachers.

This chapter provides an overview of some of the biggest OE providers online, drawing particular attention to those that provide school-level material instead of just HE-level resources. It examines the motives of open education resources (OER) users, and provides mini case studies of a selection of HE-level and school-level projects. It also explores the reach and impact of the schemes, the significance of brand and the criticism that they simply provide a new form of ‘closed’ education. This provides a handy overview of key OE projects and an introduction to the significance of school-related projects. It should be a source of material of special interest to those involved in teacher training or development, or in OE from either a school or a university.

This chapter makes an original case for school teachers to have greater recognition in the discussion about OE, and reveals a finding from an international poll of more than a quarter of million teachers who use OE resources with their students.

Findings of this chapter indicate that the significance of school-level OE has been underestimated, given the extent of user-generated teaching material available and teachers’ powers to multiply the reach of a single downloaded resource to several classes of students.

The overview however is not exhaustive, and the author stresses the problematic nature of attempting to compare projects that deliver different kinds of content for different contexts.

Active and transformative learning (ATL) challenges the new era of teaching and learning in higher education. In this chapter a systematic approach to ATL theories and methodologies is provided. Authors provide a unique methodological framework for the integration of active learning practices in modern higher education curricula. This chapter also provides an integrated context for the overall discussion of the phenomenon in the volume. The recent arrivals of new disruptive artificial intelligence-enabled technologies such as OpenAI, ChatGPT, DeepAI and others are only few aspects of a new challenging era for the teaching, learning, innovation and sustainability in the higher education.

Several factors must align if web accessibility can be achieved and maintained. It is critical that web developers, designers, and content creators each know what to do. Moreover, it is vital that administrators create systems to support enterprise-wide web accessibility. The chapter will cover key issues found in education, predominantly higher education, and share resources to accomplish this complex endeavor.

Technology is integral to contemporary life; where the digital transformation to virtual information accessibility impacts instruction, it alters the skills of learning and comprehension (Gonzalez-Patino & Esteban-Guitart, 2014; Lloyd, 2010). Although librarians/media specialists provide orientation, instruction, and research methods face-to-face and electronically, they recognize that digital learning instruction is not a linear process, and digital literacy (DL) is multi-disciplinary (Belshaw, 2012). Policy and public research findings indicate that higher education must be prepared to adapt to rapid changes in digital technology (Maybee, Bruce, Lupton, & Rebmann, 2017). Digital learning undergoes frequent transformations, with new disruptive innovation and research attempts at redefinition (Palfrey, 2015). Research often overlooks junior/community colleges. We are all learners and we need to understand the digital learning challenges that incorporating DL includes in the new digital ecology (Adams Becker et al., 2017). This study provides real faculty/librarian commentaries regarding the understanding needed to develop digital learning and contemporary digital library resources. The authors investigate faculties’ and librarians’ degree of DL perceptions with instruction at junior/community colleges. Survey data analysis uses the mean of digital self-efficacy of variables collected, revealing that participants surpassed Rogers’s (2003) chasm of 20% inclusion. Findings provided data to develop the Dimensions of Digital Learning rubric, a new evaluation tool that encourages faculty DL cross-training, librarians’ digital learning collaboration, and effective digital learning spaces.

Today, there are 16.1 million refugees worldwide under the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ mandate. Among the refugee population, half of them are children and six million are of primary and secondary school-going age. The number of displaced people around the world has reached unprecedented levels in the recent years since the Syrian crisis escalated. Refugees, because of language and other barriers, face a particularly difficult challenge in attaining even a basic education. Keeping the barriers and challenges in mind, education is now seeking the help of technology to create new and sometimes unexpected opportunities for pathways to education for refugees. This chapter will highlight the contribution of University of the People (https://www.uopeople.edu), a tuition-free, non-profit, American accredited, online university that has been working with refugees to enable access to higher education for those living in refugee camps and other displaced people around the world.

The world’s educational space is facing critical issues from globalization, accessibility and effort to integrate both technology and learner-centered knowledge. Educational practitioners, scholars and influencers are enthusiastic about infusing technology in their pedagogy and teaching–learning practices. There is a growing concern among policy-makers about the learning benefits of inducing technology into education, the psychological impact using technology and the safety of the information in learning environments. However, radical changes have taken place in the socio-political world, and education has become more democratized and humanized. Students are made aware the value of knowledge in a hyperconnected world and the need to continually learn throughout all stages of life. Successful inculcation of knowledge cannot happen only by improving the curriculum but also by achieving through an all-round development that allows the students the freedom to choose and participate in independent activities that result in social welfare and community well-being. The debate as to how to maximize the use of technology in education continues. This book aims to address the humaneness that surrounds the world of technology in education. It highlights the use of emerging technologies in pedagogy and case studies are cited to address the ongoing debate that technology brings a positive effect on education and mankind. The demand for technology continues as mankind faces unprecedented challenges where classroom education may not be possible. Technology continues to fulfill the challenges of creating a more democratic educational environment.